My Hero Academia: Discovery of Q-Energy
Chapter: 5. The Cipher.
Walking into the head office, Izuku and Bakugo see Principal Nezu, Mr. Aizawa, and Almighty alongside the students who volunteered for the investigation with worried expressions on their faces, uncharacteristically worried for especially Nezu who is disgusted with the photos on his desk.
"Hello, Everyone!" Izuku stuttered in the same worry.
"I assume you had the same luck?" Mr. Aizawa asks, "You found out that the culprit had claws and that more than two people have a Super Strength Quirk, right?"
"Well, we also got a note from the f*cking killer," Bakugo replies.
"A note?!" Uraraka replies, "We also got three notes, but we didn't know the name of the villain."
"We did," Bakugo replies.
"You did!?" Aizawa replies.
"Which villain was it?" Almight asks.
"Not a villain I'm aware of," Izuku replies, "They go by Grim Mutation."
A sudden feeling ran down Nezu's fur like a snake as he heard the Villain's name. A name that even he is afraid of, just as much as All For One's name did. A lost echo from the past awakens a side of Nezu he long hid from his students: Fear.
"You, too..." Nezu replies.
Aizawa and Almighty turn to Nezu with concern, "Oh no."
"Hey, who the f*ck is Grim Mutation?" Bakugo replies irritably.
"Grim Mutation was a Villain that showed up all of a sudden a year ago, they stole valuable technology, and that was when I decided to go on that crisis. But, when I fought them, they managed to do something that no one had done before: they outsmarted me. They tricked two of our most professional heroes into a wire trap and one of them lost a leg while the other lost her head. I had to tend to my comrade while the Grim Mutation explained every situation possible through a speaker and how the Grim Mutation would win all of them. It is like they have been training for all sorts of outcomes and thought of how to get to the best possible conclusion for themselves. I don't know why they would explain all of that to me, maybe it was mockery, maybe it was a warning, maybe it was a hoax, I don't know. But one thing was for certain that day: it would be the last time I would have been on the battlefield as a soldier, but I would command the battlefield from the sidelines. I didn't want to experience the pain and humiliation the Grim Mutation gave me that day." Nezu explains, "I lost two heroes that day, another yet to have been born."
"Yet to have been born?" Denki asks.
"You mean one of those heroes was pregnant?" Denki asks in horrifying realization.
"Yes, It was clear as crystal for that villain specifically," Nezu replies.
Jirou then shouts with anger, "Why could that b*st*rd kill a child that wasn't even born!?"
Iida then goes to Jirou, "Please Jirou, you need to calm yourself in front of our sensei!"
"No, I understand your anger," Aizawa replies.
"But, that doesn't explain who the villain is," Tokoyami replies.
"To this day, I still have no idea." Nezu replies, "But that white mask and multicolored eyes continue to haunt my dreams, and fill me with an emotion that only All for one could induce so efficiently: fear."
"Fear?!" Asui replies in shock, "But you never seem fearful!"
"But that is not important right now, I just got a note," Nezu explains.
"A note?" Izuku asks.
Nezu then gets out a piece of white paper with the following written:
"Gm ubab br Gmbu bd Hxpptmf, Ddeyml muchx vlhmesrmvmcl. Jftkr rwx Nlvxy ycw Qcbha ddntfi, Yvls muc bhhlitvl larpt muc exni ihhawxf rwx fin, mucc pngi mvja muc bbqbax ygvag ygkvttl.
Sometimes some things are best solved together rather than apart.
-Happy Decoding,
Grim Mutation."
"Is this a game to them!?" Uraraka replies to the note with anger.
"Well, we need to solve this if we are going to figure out what they are trying to tell us," Aizwawa replies.
"This is the Vigenère Cipher," Nezu explains, "Each of these letters to the secret is encoded with a different Caesar cipher, whose increment is determined by the corresponding letter of a key. We have the phrase, but we still need a key."
"How...the..." Asui asks in confusion.
"I am a super-intelligent hybrid" Nezu explains with a fake smile, "I study everything."
Izuku notices his fakeness and feels sorry in his gut for the principal.
"But what is the key?" Iida asks.
"Maybe it's in this phrase? "Sometimes some things are best solved together rather than apart," Izuku asks.
"But what do we have to put together?" Denki asks, "Maybe the letters in the blood?"
"What letters?" Uraraka asks.
"The letters that are in the bloody parts of the Letter." Denki replies, "Me, Jirou got the letter M."
The other teams checked their notes. And there were letters in the blood. Izuku and Bakugo got R, Asui and Iida got G, and Uraraka and Tokoyami got I. Suddenly Izuku notices a pattern.
"Wait a minute!" Izuku replies.
"What is it?" Tokoyami asks.
"Looks like Izuku noticed it before the rest of you," Nezu replies.
"'Sometimes some things are best solved together rather than apart.'" Izuku replies, "It is not combining our wits, it's combining the letters! if you put the notes together, the edges of the bloodstains connect. And if you put them together: You get GRIM."
"How narcissistic of this villain," Tokoyami replies.
"Leave the decoding to me now," Nezu replies.
After a few minutes of waiting patiently, Nezu speaks.
"Here we go!" Nezu replies, "This is what I got."
The students take a look at the result. But their reaction was confusion as they read it. "Av mpuk tf Avti vm Zljylaz, Mvssvd aolzl puzaybjapvuz. Dolyl aol Hunls huk Kltvu mvbnoa, Mpuk aol tvbuahpu dolyl aol wlhr avbjolz aol zrf, aolu dhpa apss aol tpkksl spnoa hyypclz."
"Are you serious!?" Bakugo shouts.
"Remember what you and Shoto talked about with yelling," Izuku replies.
"F-fine..." Bakugo replies.
"Now, now, Don't doubt me yet." Nezu replies, "This is also a different cipher called a Ceaser cipher. Notice some words are structured similarly to other words. For example: Mvssvd is structured similarly to Follow, and and each letter of one of the words is 7 words apart from the other word. Just give me one more minute to solve it."
While Nezu decodes the second cipher, Izuku sees that Almight and Aizawa's expression is guilt and sorrow. It is probably because of Nezu's experience with the heinous villain he is haunted to this day, they feel sorry for him, and it's hard not to after everything that Izuku just heard.
Nezu then speaks, "To find my Tomb of Secrets, Follow these instructions. Where the Angel and Demon fought, Find the mountain where the peak touches the sky, then wait till the middle light arrives."
Almight asks, "What?"
"Is that the message?!" Aizawa asks.
"Yes," Nezu replies.
"That's disappointing. That doesn't tell us anything." Denki responds in oblivious disappointment.
"It's a riddle, obviously." Nezu replies, "Where the angel and demon fought was where Almight and All for One fought. The Old Nomu Factory in Kamino Ward."
"But there are no mountains there," Iida replies, "So what does it mean by mountain?"
Tokoyami replies "Maybe the Mountain was a figurative thing and it is referencing something that touches the sky?"
Izuku replies, "There is that one statue in honor of Almight if that's what you meant."
Almight responds, "That's good thinking. But what's this middle light?"
"I have no idea yet. But, either way, we got a location," Nezu replies, "We'll Izuku, Bakugo, and Uraraka there."
"I'm coming too." A voice replies.
Everyone turns to the voice who happens to be Shoto Todoroki who was broken emotionally just a few hours ago, but now he calmer, yet still has sorrow and pain in his voice.
"Shoto!" Uraraka. "Are you sure?!"
"If Dabi returns, I need to take him on." Shoto replies, "Don't worry, Momo helped me suppress most of the anger so I won't get impulsive."
"If you say so." Almight replies, "Just make sure you don't let your anger get in the way, alright?"
"Of course," Shoto replies.
"Okay, You, Izuku, Bakugo, and Uraraka will go to the ruins of the Nomu Factory and investigate this Tomb of Secrets. Be prepared and be wary. This could very well be a trap." Nezu replies.
"Yes sir!" The Four heroes reply, and with unconditional loyalty and respect, they all bow to their superiors.
The four leave the room to prepare for the new mission designated for them, preparing to face the secrets they find, and prepared to uncover the Grim Mutation's plot and put an end to their schemes.
In the Villain's hideout, the Grim Mutation looks at the security cameras and witnesses the meeting.
With no emotion except pride and delight, the Grim Mutation replies, "Excellent, the Flies are headed for the Web. May the spiders silence a loose end when they speak too much."
To Be Continued...